School Reunion (TV story)
School Reunion 'is the third episode of the second series of ''Doctor Who. It was written by Toby Whithouse, directed by James Hawes and featured David Tennant as the Tenth Doctor and Billie Piper as Rose Tyler with Noel Clarke as Mickey Smith, Elisabeth Sladen as Sarah Jane Smith and John Leeson as K9. Overview To be added Synopsis The Doctor, Rose and Mickey goes to investigate Deffry Vale High School, where the students have become super-intelligent, teachers aren't what they seem and lunch times are really peculiar. When he learns the teachers and the headmaster Lucas Finch are sinister aliens, reuniting with old friends Sarah Jane Smith and K9, the Doctor sets out to uncover Finch and the teacher's evil intentions and foil their evil scheme. Plot The headmaster of Deffrey Vale High School, Mr. Finch returns to his office where he finds a young girl named Nina waiting for him, complaining of a headache. She tells him that she lives in a children's home; Finch takes her inside his office when there is a flap of wings and a screech and Nina screams in terror. Elsewhere in the school, another student, Kenny hurries to his class as the bell goes. As everybody sits down, the Doctor comes in and addresses the class as the teacher. Taking their psychics class, the Doctor starts broaching various scientific questions to the students while only one student, Milo, answers all of his questions, including how to travel faster than light without breaking a sweat. At lunchtime, the Doctor confers with Rose, undercover as a dinner lady and tells her about his experience before another begrudged dinner lady drags her back to work. Off to the side, one teacher, Mr. Wagner, approaches his student Melissa, telling her she's being moved to a higher class since Milo has failed him before dragging another student, Luke, off to another class. Having observed all this, the Doctor spots Finch overlooking the cafeteria. In the kitchen, the staff delicately transport barrels of a strange substance through the room; while watching, Rose gets a call from Mickey, who brought her and the Doctor back to investigate strange goings-on when one of the barrels suddenly tips over and the contents smother one of the dinner ladies. While the others drag the screaming woman off and shut her away, Rose examines the translucent, yellow oil leaking from the barrel. In one of the classrooms, Wagner has all the students sat at computers, calculating and working on a complex piece of alien software. Meanwhile, Finch escorts journalist Sarah Jane Smith through to the staffroom where the Doctor confers with one of the un-replacement teachers about the new staff arrivals since Finch came. When Finch arrives with Sarah, the Doctor is gobsmacked and overjoyed by this surprise appearance by his old friend, though doesn't reveal his identity to her. Meanwhile, Kenny wanders around the corridors when he is drawn to a classroom by a strange crunching sound; peering under the desk, she sees a large bat-like alien which turns into Wagner when it stands and he runs off. That night, Sarah sneaks into the school via a window to look around, at the same time the Doctor, Rose and Mickey do. While Rose goes to the kitchen to collect some oil and Mickey searches the maths department, the Doctor goes to search Finch's office. While searching, Sarah stumbles across the TARDIS in a storage room and walks out, turning to see the Doctor standing behind her. Taking a moment to take each other in, they hear a scream and rush off to the source, bumping into a scrupulous Rose on the way. They find Mickey wading through vacuum-packed rats before pressing onto Finch's office; after a moment of Rose and Sarah sniping at each other, they break into Finch's office and discover thirteen large bat-like aliens sleeping, hanging from the ceiling; as they leave, one awakens. Rushing outside, the Doctor decides to get the TARDIS to analyse the oil but Sarah instead brings them to her car where the unveils K9, worse for wear but still functioning. They head to a restaurant where the Doctor and Sarah work to fix K9 and Mickey gloats about Sarah to Rose, none of them aware that they're being observed by Finch and the bat alien. While working on K9, Sarah talks about her life after the Doctor left her behind and wishes that he came back earlier, but the Doctor doesn't explain why he didn't. While Sarah tells him that he'd left her in Aberdeen instead of Croydon when she departed, K9 comes online. Placing some of the oil on his sensor, K9 analyses it and determines it to be Krillitane oil. The Doctor is concerned by the revelation, explaining that the Krillitanes are a composite race that takes physical aspects from all the races they destroy as part of themselves, deducing that their plan has something to do with the students. Shortly, while Sarah and Mickey load up K9 in the car, Mickey realising that his role in the Doctor's life isn't anything more than the 'Tin Dog'. Rose confronts the Doctor about the people he's travelled with, upset that she's ultimately just the latest in a long line; he tells her mournfully that Rose could spend the rest of her life with him, but he can't give her the same, the 'Curse of the Time Lords'. Finch overhears the Doctor refers to himself as a Time Lord and his Krilitane brother swoops down but doesn't harm them before flying off. The next day, the Doctor sends Rose and Sarah to examine the computers in the maths department while he confronts Finch in the swimming pool. He gives his name as brother Lassar and tries to convince the Doctor that they aren't so different, promising that the next time they meet, he will join them. While Mickey sulks in the car with K9, Rose and Sarah bicker about their roles in the Doctor's life when they travelled with him, when the discussion soon has them laughing over the Doctor's eccentricities. They're still laughing at him when he arrives, confusing him. Finch returns to his office and tells his brethren the commence the plan; they call all the students to classes and devour all the other teachers. When all the children at stationed at computers, the school is sealed and the disguised Krillitane teachers get the kids to work on the same cryptic alien maths. The Doctor, Sarah and Rose see the work as it appears on the projector and the Doctor is horrified that the Krillitanes are trying to crack the Schasis Paradigm, the universal equation that would give them total control over the building blocks of reality, including time and space. Meanwhile, Kenny, who had not been affected by the Krillitane oil that had been enhancing the kids' intelligence since he hadn't been eating the canteen's chips, gets Mickey's attention and K9 suggests using the car to break in. After Kenny moves away, Mickey drives the car straight through the school's front door. Finch approaches the Doctor and tries to tempt him to join them by promising to give him the power to save everybody from evil as well as revive the Time Lords from extinction. Sarah, however, brings him back to his senses by imploring that loss and pain are just as vital as love or joy and the Doctor shatters the screen. With their plans in jeopardy, Finch calls all his brothers to him while Mickey and Kenny meet with the others as they run from the Krillitanes. Trapped in the canteen, Finch orders his brothers to attack when K9 arrives and defends them with his nose laser, providing enough time to escape before he runs out of power. Deciding to use the oil against the Krilitanes, the Doctor takes Sarah and Rose to collect it (while Kenny disorientates them with the fire alarm) while Mickey shuts off all the computers, freeing the children from their trances. With the only option available to them, K9 volunteers to remain inside to detonate the Krillitane oil when they come, aware that he would be trapped inside. After a heartfelt farewell, the Doctor leaves K9 his job while dragging a distraught Sarah from the fray. Finch and the others walk into the kitchen and finch K9 waiting; using the last of his power, he fires a laser directly at the vat and it explodes all over the Krillitanes, just as the school goes up in a ball of fire. While all the students chant for Kenny for his role in blowing up the school, the Doctor comforts Sarah over the loss of K9. Later on, Sarah finds the TARDIS in the park and the Doctor invites her inside; he invites her to come along with him and Rose, like the old days, but she declines, opting instead to remain adjusted to her life on Earth. Surprisingly, Mickey steps in and asks to come with them instead, to which, with some prompting from Sarah, the Doctor agrees to. After imparting some words to Rose, Sarah steps outside and says one last farewell to the Doctor, when he promises to come back one day. He steps back inside the TARDIS and Sarah watches it dematerialise, discovering, to her jubilation, a brand-new K9 model waiting behind where it was. Deciding they've got work to do, Sarah and K9 head home. Cast * The Doctor - David Tennant * Rose Tyler - Billie Piper * Mickey Smith - Noel Clarke * Mr Finch - Anthony Head * Sarah Jane Smith - Elisabeth Sladen * Mr Parsons - Rod Arthur * Mr Wagner - Eugene Washington * Nina - Heather Cameron * Kenny - Joe Pickley * Luke - Benjamin Smith * Milo - Clem Tibber * Melissa - Lucinda Dryzek * Dinner Lady - Caroline Berry * Voice of K9 - John Leeson Crew To be added References To be added Story Notes To be added Continuity To be added Home video and audio releases To be added External Links * Official ''School Reunion'' page on '''Doctor Who Website